June 10, 2008
AU offices go green
A green revolution is changing life in AU’s cubicles and meeting rooms with a program that helps offices become eco-certified.
The office of New Student Programs, the Department of Environmental Studies, and the faculty corner at the Center for Teaching Excellence have been certified as green offices. Several other offices are poised to join them. Faculty Services at the School of International Service is expected to win the sticker this month.
The drive got its start with the student group Eco-Sense and a class called Practical Environmental taught by Paul Wapner, School of International Service. “Every year, Eco-Sense writes a policy. Last year, we wrote a transportation policy, and this year, we wrote a sustainable purchasing policy. This is what came out of it,” said Casey Roe ’09, Eco-Sense policy director and two-time winner of a prestigious Morris K. Udall Scholarship for young environmental leaders.
Wapner’s class took the eco-certification project on this spring, but Eco-Sense, some of whose members were in Wapner’s class, will keep it running in the fall. But equally key to making it happen are the staff members like Kelly Nolin and Tiffany Sanchez who make it a priority in their offices.
It’s really not as hard as it sounds, says CTE’s Nolin, who manages the faculty corner. When she met with organizers to hear about their checklist for green practices, she was pleased to learn the office had already made most changes.
It only took a few more steps to get the green sticker that tells visitors that the office is committed to acting on its ideals.
New Student Programs made the change while preparing a series of first-ever sustainable New Student Orientations. The office will save half a ton of paper by passing out “digital folders” at the sessions, which begin June 19, instead of folders packed with flyers.
The University Library is the largest unit working to transform itself. It’s no easy feat to curtail paper and energy use at a place packed night and day by people needing to print, photocopy, and use computers.
But the library switched its printers to print double-sided by default, initiated a campus-wide recycling container project, sells reusable canvas bags and water bottles, and promotes sustainability through a green film series.
Offices have to meet a checklist of green practices to qualify for eco-certification. Here are a few tips from offices that have made the move to a greener workspace:
• Print on both sides
That’s easiest with the right printer. But even before CTE could change to a duplex printer, it was printing double-sided by keeping a box of used paper by the printer, and using the blank side for internal documents. Student Life also keeps a box of used paper by the printer and prints in a small font.
• Mug it up
A mug rack is always ready at CTE, and it’s not just for staff members’ cups. Extra mugs are kept for adjuncts or students who drop by.
• Paperless meetings
How much of the paper handed out at meetings ends up in the trash? At Student Life, it was a lot.
“At one meeting, there’d be 25 copies of a draft schedule,” recalls director Tiffany Sanchez. “Then at the next meeting, another 25. They’d go right into the trash, because it was just a draft copy.”
Now draft schedules go on PowerPoint for meetings and online for later reference.
Some faculty and staff go even further. They have no paper to waste, because they meet in cyberspace on Blackboard sites.
It’s not just green. It’s convenient. “It can be hard to get everyone together in a room to meet,” Nolin says. “Having a place to upload documents and have online discussions is useful for communication.”
• Paperless papers
“We’re trying to get faculty members to teach paperless, and use Blackboard to collect assignments as opposed to printing,” says CTE’s Nolin. “Some people still like to have paper in their hand, and will always like that, because it’s comfortable. But I teach College Writing and have graded electronically for all four semesters.”
She inserts comments electronically. It doesn’t just save trees. Students have thanked her for helping them save the money they’d have spent on printing.
• Unplug it
Idling computers drain a lot of energy at night when an office is closed. Solution: at the end of the day, turn off the computers from the surge protector.
At CTE, it took a bit of old-fashioned sweat to get this plan in place. Graduate fellows shoved desks around to ensure the switch would be easy to reach.
Now, with a flick of a switch, computers go dark at night.
